Our story and our interest in hummingbirds.

My wife Robin has had an interest in hummingbirds ever since I have known her and really for many years before that. When I first met her and got married she had a hummingbird feeder on her back porch. Every time she would see a hummingbird she would get all excited and call me to come take a look at her hummingbird. Usually she would just see one with and occasional second one showing up. The hummingbirds showing up always brought excitement to her as if she was a little kid all over again. She would just sit their in ah and watch them fly around.

We moved one summer into another house that had a very large back yard and a bunch of wildlife. Squirrels, Raccoons, ducks, possums and armadillo showing up from time to time. We also had all sorts of birds. So many different birds that my wife got a book and started marking them off as she spotted them. We never knew that there were so many different types of birds that looked the same. We purchased several pairs of binoculars and started looking at all the different colors that all these birds had. To our surprise the birds we called sparrows turned out to be about 7 to 8 different kinds of birds. From a distance they all looked like sparrows but through the binoculars these sparrows were really finches and other types of small birds.

Our back yard almost looked like a zoo on some days. The back canal housed an alligator and turtles were every where. You could also fish in the canal which was a bayou in the old days gone by. In fact we would still see an occasional boat go by with people catching bass, brim, bluegill and catfish. Most people would just catch them for the fun of it but there were some people that would eat the fish out of the canal. The pelicans would even fly by at certain times of the year. Sometimes we would see as many as 8 squirrels and 3 raccoons in the yard at one time.

Where are the Hummingbirds?

The only thing missing were our hummingbirds. No hummingbirds? My wife put her same feeder out and used the same nectar but we just could not attract the hummingbirds. The 2nd year in this house my wife decided to buy a new hummingbird feeder and she mixed her own nectar and tried for the hummingbirds again. She hung the feeder in a different place and just hoped to see one. One day she was looking in the back yard at other birds and all of a sudden she saw a hummingbird visit the feeder and then it was gone almost as fast as it showed up. This gave my wife hope that she would see another hummingbird. She was always looking and always just seeing one for a couple of seconds and the it would be gone not to be seen for a day or two again. We never figured out just why the Hummingbirds would not come in our back yard or to our feeder. We sold this house and moved to an area north west of New Orleans that was sorta in the country in the summer of 2012.

We did not really move into this house totally right away. It was a rental property and needed a lot of work. It is still a work in progress. However I did tell my wife that when I lived there 5 years ago before we met that i would see hummingbirds all the time. There are these little red flowers that would grow up all along the fence in the front yard every spring and through the fall until the cold would kill them off. The hummingbirds loved these flowers. When we started moving into the house and slowing renovating it over the summer my wife was always looking for the hummingbirds. She would see one every now and then but only for a second or two and then it would be gone.

In August 2012 we finally got settled down into our old house that sorta looked a little new on the inside due to partial renovation. The house sits smack dab in the middle of two acres in the middle of town. A bank on one side of us and a health unit on the other side of us. The yard had flowers everywhere and fruit and berry’s everywhere. Also two pecan trees and a fig tree. There were a bunch of other bushes and trees in the yard.

Hummingbirds, did we just see some?

My wife Robin decided to give her hummingbird feeder a try. She mixed up her own mixture of nectar and put it into the hummingbird feeder. A day went by. A second and a third day went by and no hummingbirds. I think my wife had give up. The feeder say there hanging on the front porch for the next week. All of a sudden it was as if every hummingbird within miles of our house realized there was a hummingbird feeder hanging on our front porch. The hummingbirds were like a swarm of bees. Well,,, maybe not that bad but there were a lot of them. I think we counted 7 at one time. There was only 4 feeding spots for them to feed. They would push each other out of the way to get to the feeder. It was unbelievable.

It was so unbelievable I just had to get a video of it. So I got my camera out and aimed it at the feeder and started the camera rolling. I will be uploading these pictures to this website so you all can see this site we have going on at our hummingbird feeder. To think we went from no hummingbirds to 7 within a couple of weeks was just amazing. I had to film it and make this website about it.

I hope you enjoy this video and there will be more to come including some still images and some very closeups.

This video was taken from my kitchen window just 10 feet from the feeder.

This is a new website as of September 1st 2012. Our Hummingbird informational trip is just getting started. You will see several different types of hummingbirds. One of them in the picture has a red band going around its neck. All of them look to have a dark green colored back to them. I believe I have at east two different types of hummingbirds or it might just be the different colors from the male and female bird. I’m not sure yet but with closer inspection of the pictures I hope to bring out more details of just what we are seeing.

Other Websites Dedicated To Hummingbirds

Feliciana Hummingbird Celebration – The Feliciana Nature Society will hold their annual Feliciana Hummingbird Celebration in St. Francisville, Louisiana. The event will include Friday evening speakers and the opportunity to observe hummingbirds up close as they are banded. There will be Hummingbird friendly plants for sale as well as crafts and birding supplies.

Mizell Farms – Specializing in hummingbird, butterfly and native plants. Get a flowering plant that attracts hummingbirds. On Saturday September 8th 2012 there is a Folsom Hummingbird and Butterfly Festival that takes place. For more information call 985-796-0057.

Hummer/Bird Study Group – A non-profit group dedicated to the study and preservation of hummingbirds. These people have been doing this since 1987 and know a lot about hummingbirds. The non-profit Hummer/Bird Study Group was formed in 1994 and supports dozens of banders that band and track the migration of the hummingbirds.